Online Teaching and Learning

Online Learning Notes (weekly)

2011-06-11T17:33:00.001-07:00

The Future of Reading - In Web Age, Library Job Gets Update - Series - NYTimes.com

Great article and video about the modern school librarian/ "information literacy teacher."

tags: information reading web critical-thinking education online teaching learning library

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Online Learning Notes (weekly)

2011-03-12T16:33:00.001-08:00

What To Do After You've Made A Mistake | allnurses.com | Readability

"Nursing school doesn't really teach you how to be a nurse, it just gives you a glimpse into the world of nursing and the NCLEX gives you a license to learn. If you're smart, you'll learn something new every day of your career. If you're very smart, you'll learn how to handle those moments when you're very, very stupid."

This is cool - I saved it from Readability - it was written in green Comic Sans on AllNursing.com's website with too many colorful flashing ads - horrible. But Readability makes it... erm, readable!

tags: nursing health learning mistakes ethics

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Online Learning Notes (weekly)

2010-11-27T16:33:00.001-08:00

A Distracting Article About Digital Distraction
Too distracted to finish reading this...

tags: thought ADD web computers learning

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Online Learning Notes (weekly)

2010-05-08T17:34:00.001-07:00

Instructional Models for Using Weblogs In eLearning: Case Studies from a Hybrid and Virtual Course -- Campus Technology
This article presents models for using blogs and offers recommendations for faculty who are considering using blogs in their courses.
tags: online, teaching, learning, integrating_technology, blogging, blogs, education
Writing With Web Logs
Using blogs for teaching.
tags: integrating_technology, education, blogging, blogs, teaching, online, learning

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

iPods and School

2010-05-04T21:51:00.000-07:00

I'd like to try a little persuasive writing challenge - here's the topic:

Should iPods (or other mp3 type players) be allowed in class? Why or Why Not?

Your job is to try to convince me of practical, constructive, educational reasons to allow iPods. Or the reverse. Be specific! When should they be allowed, and when shouldn't they? For what purposes? Is there research backing up your opinions? Please cite at least two different sources with examples of positive educational uses of iPods in class, or conversely, problems related to their use.

If you can convince me with enough evidence and examples, I may try it - so be persuasive and back up your talk with sources!

Online Learning Notes (weekly)

2010-01-02T16:35:00.001-08:00

Adult Learning - Neuroscience - How to Train the Aging Brain - NYTimes.com
Interesting article!
tags: screencast, thought, brain, memory, education, learning
- But she also finds that if you are primed with sounds that are close to those you’re trying to remember
  - - post by naturegeek
- The brain, as it traverses middle age, gets better at recognizing the central idea, the big picture.
- If kept in good shape, the brain can continue to build pathways that help its owner recognize patterns and, as a consequence, see significance and even solutions much faster than a young person can.
- “We need to know stuff. But we need to move beyond that and challenge our perception of the world. If you always hang around with those you agree with and read things that agree with what you already know, you’re not going to wrestle with your established brain connections.”
- As adults we have all those brain pathways built up, and we need to look at our insights critically,” he says. “This is the best way for adults to learn. And if we do it, we can remain sharp.”
- After all, I can Google a simple name.
  - - post by naturegeek

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Some links of interest for online teaching and learning

2008-11-14T12:02:00.001-08:00

From Diigo, one of the great research, bookmarking, annotating, and sharing tools online, here are some recent articles I've saved:

Is surving the Internet altering your brain?
We're not just surfing - we're EVOLVING!
tags: thought, web, learning, brain
Millennial Future Learners and Digital Literacy
Julia Fallon
tags: education, web, web2.0, learning, online, technology
Thing 1: Lifelong Learning | The Digital English Classroom
Great blog with 23 "things" that help in online education
tags: education, learning, blogs, tools, web2.0, teaching
5 Basic Elements of Cooperative Learning | LearnHub
Explanation of the 5 Basic Elements of Cooperative Learning
tags: education, learning
100 Helpful Web Tools for Every Kind of Learner
Determining how you best learn and using materials that cater to this style can be a great way to make school and the entire process of acquiring new information easier and much more intuitive. Here are some great tools that you can use to cater to your individual learning style, no matter what that is.
tags: web2.0, tools, education, learning, web
Librarian of the Internet: Spinning the Social Networking Web in the Classroom
Incorporating Social Media in the classroom
tags: teaching, education, learning, web2.0, social, media

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Makin' Whuffie

2008-09-29T16:24:00.000-07:00

Social Capital

Tara Hunt has a book all about creating online social capital: The Whuffie Factor. Until it comes out, you can read articles by her on her blog - I like this one: You Can't Eat Whuffie, But It's Getting Harder to Eat Without It.

Once explained briefly, we all recognize what "Whuffie" is. We know when we are gaining it, we know when we don't have it, and we know when we do. It's basically your reputation, which is all you have online, since "on the internet, no one knows you're a dog"!

Members of an online community gain social capital by making thoughtful or helpful contributions. This can be made tangible by a rating system - some forums have thumbs up or down or voting systems for forum posts. For example, Amazon.com has the "was this post helpful" vote. Contributors with more helpful votes (and more posts), gain social capital and their posts tend to be more heavily weighted by other members of the community. I've seen numerous forums where the number of posts you had made showed up in your profile on each post, and crossing certain thresholds changed your status (e.g., 1-50 posts = "new kid," 50-100 posts = "been around the block," 100-200 posts = "old hand," etc). Once contributors notice these stats, they strive to get positive votes and higher status - it's just human nature!

Social capital is a natural and logical consequence/reward of a student's (or anyone's) online behavior and contributions, and as such, it is a powerful tool for educators to include in their online courses to ensure student engagement and retention.

Online Community

A sense of community is created where people have a common goal, such as a project, or can benefit from working together. One of those benefits is social capital, as mentioned above. Another is increased learning. If you want to truly learn something, there is nothing like teaching it, so allowing, in fact encouraging, students to help one another solve problems, to teach each other, increases learning for both the helper and the helped.

A group can gain social capital by being proud of what it creates and getting positive feedback from other groups. A chance for students, whether working as individuals or in collaborative groups, to give feedback to each other is a valuable tool for creating a greater sense of community and engagement toward common goals.

Educator Tools and Links for Creating Community

(and opportunities for students to develop social capital):

Bookmarking, Sharing, Highlighting, and Annotating Online Resources:

Diigo is a great tool for Educators, because you can form a group, and share bookmarks, which each member can highlight and comment on. Diigo is a fantastic tool for sharing resources and collaborating. Now, they have come out with Diigo for Educators, to make it even better!

Your Own Networks:

Moodle.org is a great online community as well. At first, Moodle may seem clunky to use compared to other online forums, but Moodle is much more than just a forum - it's an open source Course Management System with many, many ways to customize it for your own classroom. And it's free! If you've taken other online courses with Blackboard or WebCT, you might realize that Moodle is pretty darn great. The Moodle website also has great resources for educators and an active, passionate, community. Here is the Moodle Pedagogical Philosophy, which makes for inspiring reading!

Ning for Educators is another great resource for creating your own, private online community - now ad free, too! In the Ning, students can each have their own pages, leave comments for others, create blogs, have discussions, post photos, videos and more. I am a member of Nerdfighters, which is on a Ning network, and find the format very fun and easy to use!

Video:

YouTube, or TeacherTube for those worried about the (tons of) inappropriate content on YouTube (ie, K-12 teachers).

Some YouTube resources I enjoy are Lee Lefever's Explanations in Plain English which may be helpful to explain social bookmarking, blogging, wikis, Twitter, and much more to your students should you want to start using those in your online classes.

Also on YouTube is my favorite video from professor Mike Wesch, explaining just what Web 2.0 is, and the power of the network: The Machine is US/ing Us. He has an interesting video presentation on "An anthropological introduction to YouTube" on his home page!

Twitter:

Using Twitter as an Educational Tool shows how microblogging can be used in the online classroom to help create community, and perhaps better than that article is one it links to, Twitter for Academia by AcademHack, another useful site.

Creating Your Own Social Network of Educators

If you are on Diigo, or another Social Bookmarking site, you can follow lots of other educators who are on there and learn from them, or at least learn from the same sources they are learning from - Kathy Schrock is one who comes to mind for K-12 educators.

Twitter also has communities - I sort of follow the web design community, the birdwatcher/naturalist/hiker community, and the liberal community on there, but it's all about who you follow. Here is a list of 100+ Learning Professionals on Twitter for some ideas.

Conclusion

Social engagement is a great way to motivate students, keep them engaged in active learning that feels meaningful and relevant to them. Giving chances for students to earn, and bestow, social capital, using practices to create a sense of community, and modeling life-long learning yourself will help your students, and you, succeed in the world of online teaching and learning!